Lack of definition of gender identity ?

[mormeguil]

I have thinking about this quite a bit lately and decided to start a thread on the subject. Now, i'm trying to order everything in my mind so if anything is not clear please tell me.

First of all, what I refer to as "gender identity" is the collective caracteristic associated to each gender.

So, overall it seems to me that gender idendity is pretty much loosing ground right now. Overall there is not really much of a form of what it means to be a men or a women nowadays. Role are not as defined by gender as before and it as pretty much became the norm that "men and woman can do most of the same things".

The disturbing trend seems to be that female gender identy is pretty much disseapering. Women have the possibility to act in the same way as men do. The reverse does not seems to be truth. Emotions are still something that men can not show. There are still some jobs that look suspicous for men. They usually don't get to keep the children after a divorce, etc. etc.

Also, most things that are related to male gender idenity are pretty much viewed as "bad" by society. Agressivity, sex, etc.

I have the following questions related to this subject. First, do you feel it's true that gender identity is disseapering and what are the consequences of this right now and in the near future?

[Still Standing]

Whether or not male gender identity is pretty much viewed as "bad" by society, it seems to me that more and more women are adopting masculine traits and more and more men are adopting feminine traits. I believe that at their core, both genders have elements of both sexes present in their personality. In the past, society required that one grow up to become "fully male" or "fully female" and transmitted specific expectations for each gender from generation to generation. Nowadays, one can more easily connect to both their male and female sides without being judged. I believe that this can only facilitate understanding between both genders.

[firebee]

So everyone's acting more masculine and we view masculinity more negatively?

...oops.


I have the following questions related to this subject. First, do you feel it's true that gender identity is disseapering and what are the consequences of this right now and in the near future?

"I have a gender identity. 'Elf' is a gender."

Gender identity is not disappearing, but rather changing; from the perspective of folks who find comfort in Men Being Men and Women Being Women and Ambiguity Not Permitted, their particular security blanket is being taken away, but that's not quite the same thing. I think that this is an expected adaptation to historically unprecedented levels of economic prosperity and technological control over reproduction; humans have big brains so that we adapt to conditions that our bodies alone don't prepare us for -- that's our particular specialty.

The main consequence of interest that I see is the fueling of reactionaries on either side -- more gender wars in Sociology, essentially.